Astronomy and astrophysics

Study of small scale magnetic features in the Solar photosphere

by Gautam Narayan (SU)

Europe/Stockholm
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Description
Solar photospheric magnetic field is distributed over a wide range of spatial scales with sunspots representing the largest scale and micropores and isolated flux tubes the smallest observable scales. It has been believed for several decades that 90% of the flux outside sunspots exists in the form of strong field. However, with increasing spatial resolution and improved signal-to-noise, we are now seeing more and more evidence also of weak fields, some of it being horizontal. Resolving the smallest scale magnetic features and observing weak fields hold the key to the understanding of Solar magnetism: its emergence, evolution and disappearance. We present some results from studying small scale magnetic features observed with the Swedish Solar Telescope(SST) together with the new CRISP spectropolarimeter.